


Take a Punch

by LegolasLovely



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Injury, Durincest, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Past Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:20:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegolasLovely/pseuds/LegolasLovely
Summary: This was not supposed to have this much banter, but that’s what happened. They are brothers, after all.I made a little mini-photoset thingy for this! Link to the tumblr posthere
Relationships: Fíli/Kíli (Tolkien)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	Take a Punch

**Author's Note:**

> This was not supposed to have this much banter, but that’s what happened. They are brothers, after all.
> 
> I made a little mini-photoset thingy for this! Link to the tumblr post [here](https://legolaslovely.tumblr.com/post/625898237897932800/take-a-punch)

They’d snuck in the back door of their home. Then there was further sneaking when Kíli tiptoed down the short, skinny hallway, past his mother’s door and into the kitchen. 

Fíli had reminded him about the ice box’s tendency to slam shut, but he hadn’t accounted for the loud, sticky sound the seal made when it was opened. With a wince, he jerked the lid, reached for the nearest slab of frozen meat, and gently set the ice box to rights, pushing with all his weight to shut the top tight. 

With the lightest footing he could manage, he slid across the kitchen, swiping a towel from the cabinet knob as he went. Down the hall he slithered, giving extra care to avoid the creaking floorboards in front of his mother’s room. Only when he reached his and Fíli’s bedroom and closed the door with a soft click behind him, did he let out the breath he’d been holding.

He leaned his back against the door and closed his eyes, holding out the prize from his mission. “Got it,” he whispered.

“I heard the ice box from here,” he heard Fíli say.

Kíli’s eyes lifted in a full glare that very quickly softened.  
Fíli lay crooked on the bed, one shoulder lifted by the pillow and head hanging down low as he cocked a brow at Kíli. The other side of his face, however, was swollen, unmoving, and purpling faster than either of them had anticipated. In the low light, Kíli could see he hadn’t cleaned the bloody sludge from his brother’s face as well as he thought he had before they made their escape. It was still there, caked his thick beard and long eyelashes as evidence. 

Of course that boggin bampot wore a ring on his finger- most likely for nights just like this one.

“Well, I had to get the damn thing closed,” Kíli said, pushing off the door. “Or would you rather I left it ajar and let all the meat go rancid overnight?”

“I would have been much quieter than you-”

“You and your one good eye!”

“Who’s fault is that?”

Fíli had sat up in the bed. From this angle, as Kíli looked straight on at him, his black eye and bloody cheek looked even worse than when he was slumped in the bed. 

Kíli crossed the room, pushed on Fíli’s chest until he’d laid back down in the bed, and shoved the iced meat into his hand. 

“Nobody asked you to take that punch for me,” Kíli said. “I coulda taken that sleeze on my own.”

“I didn’t _take a punch_ , Kíli. I pummeled that guy and he happened to get one hit in.” Fíli rested the towel wrapped slab on his face and fell further into the bed’s worn softness. “There’s a difference.”

Kíli rolled his eyes and told Fíli to _scooch_. As Fíli shimmied, giving grumbling protests all the way, Kíli adjusted the quilt underneath him and set the pillow comfortably under his brother’s head. He plopped on the bed, sitting in the square between Fíli’s arm and waist. 

“That guy won’t be going back to Buck’s, that’s for sure,” Kíli said.

Fíli’s chuckle was light, though his smile didn’t spread to the bruised side of his face as it would have on any other day. “Serves him right. Like you said, he shouldn’t have been treating Arabella and Rava that way, yelling at them for the whole tavern to hear.”

“That’s why I wanted to teach him a lesson! And I could have handled it.” Kíli fished through his pocket for the wet cloth Rava had given him for the blood. Folding the red stained corner out of sight, he lifted the frozen meat package from Fíli’s face and swiped at his beard until the blond strands were washed clean. 

He moved his attentions upwards toward the gash which the ornate ring left in Fíli’s cheek. Hesitating, he met Fíli’s eyes to find he was being silently and attentively watched. 

“What?” Kíli asked. “You don’t think I could have done it?”

“Of course I do. But I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Because I’m the little brother.” Kíli couldn’t roll his eyes hard enough. He wanted them to roll all the way back and keep spinning, like Uncle Thorin’s globe when he sent it whirling until it broke off its axis and bounced down the hall. He wanted Fíli to understand, to stop patronizing him. “I’m always the little brother-”

“You’re _my_ little brother,” Fíli said, hand connected to the nape of Kíli’s neck. “No one hurts you.” As quickly as it appeared, Fíli’s hand fell, clasping Kíli’s shoulder before it settled back on the bed.

Kíli brought his attention back to Fíli’s bloodied face. He dabbed lightly, cleaning the gash and the purpling skin around it with the utmost care he could manage. “How do you think I felt when that guy hit you because of me?”

“Maybe this will make you think twice before starting fights with huge men in bars,” Fíli chuckled.

“You said I was right to!”

“I know-” He sucked a breath through clenched teeth as Kíli pressed a clean corner of cloth to the sharpest edge of his cheek. That damn ring hit _right_ _there_ and it felt as if his bone was bursting through his skin. His bruised and aching hand found Kíli’s waist and squeezed.

“Almost done,” Kíli said. 

“Be done now.” Fíli took the cloth from Kíli and threw it across the room. Ignoring squeaks of disbelief and other protests, Fíli pulled at Kíli’s shoulders until he lay flat on the bed. “Stay.” It was a command.

“It’s only going to hurt more later,” Kíli said.

"Leave me alone then too.” But he lifted his arm and slid it under Kíli’s head to act as another pillow for his brother. A curse rumbled in his chest as he rested the melting meat pack back on his face.

“This is leaving you alone?” Kíli asked, shimmying around until he was comfortable next to Fíli in the small bed. He yanked his hair out from under his shoulders and draped it across Fíli’s forearm, feeling warm skin against his neck. 

“It’s good enough,” Fíli said.

“Ma’s gonna kill you for coming home from a bar with a black eye.”

“ _Ma_ is going to reward me for taking care of _you_.”

Kíli turned inwards, fixing his brother with a gaping mouth of realization. “You only did this for the reward!”

Fíli threw the meat away and rolled, keeping his arm under Kíli’s head and propping himself up on his elbow so he could look down on wide brown eyes. “Yes. And the reward is a good one.” He leaned to Kíli’s lips and kissed him, smiling when he felt the one below him stop breathing altogether. 

He drew away, but not before running the tip of his nose over Kíli’s, and fell back to his side of the bed, leaving the breathless one speechless as well. He couldn’t keep a smirk from spreading across one side of his lips when out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kíli staring at him.

“Don’t you like rewards?” Fíli asked.

“Yes.”

Kíli clumsily elbowed the arm-pillow under his head as he lifted himself and buried his fingers in Fíli’s braids. He kissed that smiling mouth again. 

“Mm, ow.” Fíli got out.

“Not sorry.”

“You don’t care about my pain? What I went through for you?” he asked against Kíli’s lips. 

“Shut up.”

Fíli rolled over him. He pulled at the hand Kíli had against his sore face and pushed it into the bed. He held no grudges, however, when it escaped and wrapped tightly around his waist. 

He kissed Kíli again, glad he took the punch that led them to this.


End file.
